Language of the Voiceless: Traces of Taino Language, Food, and Culture in the Americas From 1492 to the Present

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intellectual and governing class of Europe to whom most chronicles were oriented in
order to obtain titles, recognition and favors 144 .
Another important note about this word is that, although spelled with an S in the
main text, in the Guatemalan manuscript by fray Alonzo Remón the term appears
spelled with a C, closer to the Taino phonetics. It is important to also note that, with the
exception of cebo, cebú and cebiche, the ceb root seldom appears in Spanish phonetic
constructions, thus sustaining the foreign origin of the word into the vernacular
Spanish. Moreover, in this Guatemalan version the writer adds a description omitted
from the other two variants that gives a closer meaning to the Taino connotation of the
term. In this version the text reads as follows:
la sangre que nos salía de las plantas de los pies y aun de las otras partes, lo
dejaré . Y quiso Dios que con mucho trabajo: Pues como las olas que
reventaban de aquellos grandes ceborucos nos embestían.
It is remarkable that in this note the writer first spells the word close to the Taino
Cibahouruco, and second, describes rocks similar of emerging rocky-coast-cliff
formations typical of the Greater Antilles, closer to the Taino symbolic meaning of the
term. This variance on the description and spelling of the term by three different
transcribers could also suggest some linguistic doubt about the meaning of it. This could
also reflect the own linguistic registry of the writers. As illustrated in pages above,
Spanish lexicalization of certain terms was related to the population, the title and level
of education of the writer. In some cases, the chroniclers were illiterate and dictated
their accounts to scribes, further altering the original connotation and phonetics with
144
(Restall, 2003)